The present invention relates to devices for continuously packaging articles, such as delicate hosiery, pantyhose and the like, within containers which include an initially opened article receiving cavity or recessed portion and a lid portion applied to the opening after one or more articles have been placed therein to close the container and confine the articles therein. This broad idea is common in the art as shown, for example, by the U.S. Patents to Bell et al, No. 3,707,825 and King, No. 4,168,599 both of which are assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. These prior art systems are employed to package articles within containers in the general shape of an egg, divided into upper and lower halves with the lower half being the article receiving portion and the upper half being the lid or cover. These prior art devices are bulky, complicated and expensive to manufacture. Other systems are shown by Byrd, U.S. Pat. No. 2,897,643; Deming Sr., U.S. Pat. No. 3,522,454; and King, U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,259.
The present invention is relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture as compared with the prior art. Only one portion or half of a generally egg shaped container is employed and a flat disk is inserted in the opened top thereof to form a cover or lid for the container. The upper opened end of the container is provided with a rim or band-like portion to receive said disk.
Briefly, the apparatus includes a multi-station, intermittently rotatable, generally circular turret assembly having mounted along the periphery thereof a plurality of canisters for temporarily confining articles therein. As the turret or carousel indexes or intermittently rotates through these stations, an open-ended container is inserted into the canister to receive the article temporarily stored therein. At subsequent stations a disk-shaped lid or cover is applied to the open-ended container to form a sealed container andthe container removed from the carousel and transferred to a packaging station.
One of the primary objects of the invention is the provision of a new and improved packaging system.
Another object of the invention resides in the fact that a more simplified container is employed thereby eliminating complicated handling mechanism while only adding simple, efficient mechanism for handling a flat disk. With this arrangement a container can be used that has a substantially planar base for resting on a like surface unlike an egg shaped container.
Other objections and advantages of the invention will become apparent when considered in view of the following detailed description: